Catalan President Makes Secession Pledge in Challenge to Spain
Catalan Separatists to Intensify Protests in Run-Up to Election
(Bloomberg) -- Catalonia’s separatist president pledged a new push for independence, challenging the Spanish government during a tense week of violent street protests against jail terms given to leaders of a failed bid for secession in 2017.
“If we all make it possible, we must be able to finish validating independence during this legislature,” regional President Joaquim Torra said during a session of the Catalan parliament on Thursday.
Unrest has pulsed through Catalan cities since Monday when Spanish Supreme Court judges issued combined sentences totaling 100 years to nine leaders of the 2017 bid for secession, including former regional Vice President Oriol Junqueras. The clashes come as Spain prepares for general elections on Nov. 10.
Acting Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, asked to respond to Torra’s remarks, said the regional leader should have learned from experience what happens if the rule of law isn’t respected.
The scale and violence of Catalan protests this week could present a severe challenge to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez as he prepares to lead his Socialist party into the elections, the fourth national poll in as many years.
With the conservative People’s Party and the Spanish nationalists of Vox already rising in the polls before the sentences were delivered, Sanchez will need to carefully calibrate his response to the separatists. The premier declined to take up opportunities to form a new government over the summer.
To be sure, it’s by no means clear that Torra has support within the wider independence movement to press for a referendum on seceding from Spain now.
Sergi Sabria, a leader of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, another separatist party, in the regional parliament, said now isn’t the time to set targets for when independence can be achieved, according to comments cited in daily El Pais.
While separatist parties Esquerra, led by Junqueras, and Torra’s Junts per Catalunya have both called for the release of the imprisoned leaders, they have growing differences on strategy. ERC has been more open to negotiation with Madrid on issues beyond the central demand for a referendum on independence.
Sanchez on Wednesday night called on Torra to unequivocally repudiate the violence, saying the national government would demonstrate its strength through a measured response to the protests.
“We’ve always condemned and we condemn violence,” Torra responded, in a speech on Catalan state TV after Sanchez spoke. “This must stop immediately.”
Those comments came after protesters clashed with law enforcement for a third consecutive day. Catalonia’s regional police said they were attacked with Molotov cocktails; broadcasters showed images of youths hurling rocks and of burning cars.
The Spanish government has consistently maintained that it won’t accede to the separatists’ call for a referendum. “Conflicts have to be solved by dialog in the framework of the constitution,” acting Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said Tuesday.
Separatist leaders are seeking to use the demonstrations to apply as much pressure as possible and force Madrid to give ground, a person involved in setting strategy for Junts per Catalunya said.
Open support for the recent demonstrations has become a balancing act for Torra and other senior pro-independence figures, who’ve been wary of alienating grassroots supporters who favor non-violent protests.
Images of violence also raise the risk of losing support from international sympathizers and could prompt a backlash from Madrid.
“Total support to the demonstrations and massive and calm marches,” Junqueras tweeted from jail on Wednesday. “Violence doesn’t represent us.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Rodrigo Orihuela in Madrid at rorihuela@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Charles Penty at cpenty@bloomberg.net, Jerrold Colten, Karl Maier
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.